Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Packet InterNet Groper
     
         (ping, originally contrived to match
        submariners' term for the sound of a returned sonar pulse) A
        program written in 1983 by Mike Muuss (who also wrote {TTCP})
        used to test reachability of destinations by sending them one,
        or repeated, {ICMP} echo requests and waiting for replies.
        Since ping works at the {IP} level its server-side is often
        implemented entirely within the {operating system} {kernel}
        and is thus the lowest level test of whether a remote host is
        alive.  Ping will often respond even when higher level,
        {TCP}-based services cannot.
     
        Sadly, Mike Muuss was killed in a road accident on 2000-11-20.
     
        The term is also used as a verb: "Ping host X to see if it is
        up."
     
        The {Unix} command "ping" can be used to do this and to
        measure round-trip delays.
     
        The funniest use of "ping" was described in January 1991 by
        Steve Hayman on the {Usenet} group comp.sys.next.  He was
        trying to isolate a faulty cable segment on a {TCP/IP}
        {Ethernet} hooked up to a {NeXT} machine.  Using the sound
        recording feature on the NeXT, he wrote a {script} that
        repeatedly invoked ping, listened for an echo, and played back
        the recording on each returned {packet}.  This caused the
        machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..."
        as long as the network was up.  He turned the volume to
        maximum, ferreted through the building with one ear cocked,
        and found a faulty tee connector in no time.
     
        See also {ACK}, {ENQ}, {traceroute}, {spray}.
     
        {The Story of the Ping Program
        (http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html)}.
     
        {Unix manual page}: ping(8).
     
        (2002-11-29)